My Rainbow
by EccentricVixen
Summary: Rainbow Dash finds an alicorn named Mari in the Everfree forest, who claims she used to be human. Twilight created her as an experiment, but wishes to hide Mari from Princess Celestia, as that is forbidden magic. In the meantime, Rainbow teaches Mari about flying while Twilight teaches her about magic. However, they both fall in love with Mari... Then Celestia finds out.
1. Chapter 1

Faster. She had to go faster.

It was midday and Rainbow Dash had been trying to perfect a new move in which she'd do a Sonic Rainboom and then write out her name in the rainbow trailing behind her before she slowed down too much. She was just climbing up high above the Everfree Forest after yet another failed attempt at the Sonic Rainboom. She'd only done it three times, and twice of those were by accident. The first time, she'd been racing some bullies to protect Fluttershy's honor. The second time she had to save Rarity after she did a fabulous impersonation of Icarus and flew too close to the sun with the wings Twilight made for her out of gossamer and morning dew. The third time, she'd been feeling pretty awesome after they beat down Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings and it had just happened when she wanted it to, above Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding. But now every time she felt the air start to resist her, she couldn't break the sound barrier and she was so close every time!

Frustrated, she began to dive, beating her wings harder and faster than anyone in Equestia could, the tops of the trees rushing towards her as she pulled out of the dive, feeling the telltale tingle and change in air pressure as she pushed herself faster, speeding towards Equestria when suddenly

**BOOM.**

It happened, there and then, a sonic rainboom echoed across the sky and a rainbow trailed out from her similarly coloured tail. Looking behind her to check she'd really done it, she grinned and whooped, paying no attention to where she was going, she looked ahead of her again and CRASH. She went straight through the roof of the house, the wood splintering and tiles shattering as she plowed across the floor, through a wall and finally stopped against another wall, having broken through some expensive looking speakers.

"Dude... what?" A white pony with a blue mane and tail came staggering into the room, apparently half asleep. Her cutie mark was the mirror image of two bridged eight notes. "I don't even." She groaned, trying to take in the sight of her broken DJ setup as Rainbow pulled herself out of the wreckage, wincing as she stretched out her wing. It was bruised and she'd torn a few ligaments again, but at least it wasn't broken.

"Rainbow Dash?" Vinyl Scratch stared at her, uncomprehending as Dash stepped over a shattered speaker worth four thousand bits. "I'm going to need a coffee." Vinyl muttered and staggered away downstairs.

Rather sore and and a little dazed, Rainbow followed her, apologising a little sheepishly. Vinyl held up one hoof, "Coffee first." and turned on the coffee maker, stared at it vaguely for a few minutes and then poured herself a coffee.

She was about half way through her cup of coffee when suddenly freaked out. Putting the coffee mug on the kitchen table she rushed upstairs to survey the damage.

"Shoot. Rainbow. That's my setup, man. What the hay?" she said as if in shock.

"Um... I can pay for it?" Rainbow suggested.

"Uh... Let's see. You've broken pretty much everything in the room, so that'll probably come to about twenty thousand bits."

"T-Tw-T-" stammered Rainbow before regaining composure, "Don't you have insurance or something?"

"Yeah... I'll find out if they'll cover it."

"Well I gotta go, nice chatting to you, bye!" Dash babbled quickly, before quickly shooting out the window and out over the Everfree Forest. It had started to rain now. The weather in the Everfree Forest had a mind of it's own, which is one of the reasons it was so spooky. No pegasus ponies could tame the weather over there, it was like an entirely different world. Twilight had said it was because it had a high level of magical radiation left over from the time when a mischievous spirit ruled the land, but she didn't go into the specifics. Rainbow wasn't an egghead, she didn't care about all of that. Spooky was spooky. But as she decided to head on over to visit Twilight for advice, her tender wing gave out and she fell, crashing through the trees and landing muzzle-first in the mud. Everypony knew this place was haunted, so she tried to get airbourne and failed. Her wing just wasn't playing ball. She could ignore the pain; that was what an athelete does. You can't train unless you're willing to feel the burn, but if the wings won't cooperate... She let out a long drawn-out sigh and began to walk.

"Hello? Is anybody out there?" Rainbow heard a terrified female voice quaver. That sounded like Fluttershy! She galloped towards the sound of the voice, skidding to a halt as she saw one of the princesses standing in a clearing. Wait, it wasn't one of the princesses. But she had wings and a horn and was larger than most other ponies! What the hay was going on? She had no cutie mark too. She looked young, but not that young. Was she a goddess, like the princesses? But she seemed to be in distress, so Rainbow cautiously approached her.

"Hey, who are you?" she asked the lost-looking goddess. The sound of Rainbow's voice seemed to startle her, but not as much as seeing her.

"Did you just... speak? And you're rainbow coloured!" she asked Rainbow incredulously, all fear apparently replaced by curiosity.

"Uh... Yeah. Anyway, you look lost. Need a hand?"

"But you're a horse!"

"Yeah... so are you. And I'm a pony." Rainbow stared at the newcomer. It was like she'd never seen another pony before, or even looked in the mirror. What did she think that _she_ was? A fish?

The puzzled looking alicorn looked down at one hoof and examined it, "I guess you're right." she said dismissively in her high-pitched singsong voice, "The pony issue aside, where am I? Am I still in England?"

"Um... You're really weird. I've never heard of any England before. You're in the Everfree Forest, a little way from Ponyville." Rainbow explained, "Did you hit your head or something?"

"Ponyville. Seriously?" The princess, or at least Rainbow assumed she was a princess, said doubtfully.

"Uh huh. I'll show you the way, only we'll have to walk. I've damaged my wing."

"Sure. Thank you... What's your name?"

"Rainbow Dash. I'm only the fastest flyer in all of Equestria." Rainbow Dash boasted shamelessly, "I'm not a Wonderbolt yet but I will be. Just you wait."

"I see." the alicorn intoned slowly, ignoring the stream of new words she hadn't heard of before. Equestria? Wonderbolts? And what kind of a name was Rainbow Dash anyway?

"What about you, Princess..." Dash trailed off, prompting the newcomer to finish her sentence.

"Princess?! I'm not a princess!" she exclaimed, "And I'm Mari. Why on earth would you think I'm a princess?"

"Well you have wings and a horn. Only Celestia, Luna and Cadence have those. "

"Wings? Horn? This is all too weird for me." muttered Mari with a sigh of resignation, "But yes, it would be great if you could show me the way out."

"Great! I'll take you to Twilight. She'll know what to do with you."

And they walked, all the way out. Both of them remained silent, and while the psuedo-goddess seemed quite at home with silence, Rainbow Dash felt really awkward and kept trying to think of a way to start a conversation, but gave up in the end. Daydreaming about flying as she walked, she giggled out loud at the thought of flying with the Wonderbolts as they left the forest and passed Fluttershy's house.

_[Author's note: I'm trying to update this evey week or two, and I'm always happy for reviews and critiques. Obviously I do miss bits when it comes to editing, because I don't have a third party to edit for me. Anyone wanting to_ _assist me with editing should send an email over to kytikor or send me a message through ._

_We're also missing any sort of cover art. Again, any contributions are welcome]_


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was shining in Ponyville, as it ought to be. Rainbow was glad to be out the Everfree Forest, where who knows what might happen. She couldn't understand how Fluttershy could live right next door to it, but whatever floats your boat. Whereas Rainbow was Dash by name, Dash by nature. She spent most of her time racing through the air, whereas Fluttershy was a pegasus pony who was afraid of heights. Ironic, right?

As Rainbow and Mari made their way through the relatively busy streets of Ponyville, headed towards the library, both Mari and Rainbow became increasingly aware of the number of looks Mari was getting. Rainbow had to admit, she looked beautiful. Her long wavy mane was a gorgeous rose red with a white streak, and her coat was white, yet seemed to glitter like diamonds, and her eyes! Her eyes were emerald green...

She shook her head. _Snap out of it, Dash._ she told herself severely in the privacy of her own head. She's drawing attention to herself because she looks like a princess. See, look now, they're even bowing down to her, but nobody dares speak to her. The crowds parted for us as we made our journey to Twilight's house. It felt like it took them hours to get there, when in reality it was probably more like ten minutes.

Knock. Knock. Rainbow knocked on the wooden door to the huge tree house. A casual thought ran through her head; Mari had wings, right? She could fly, and that means there was somepony new to race. Twilight pulled open the front door, gasped at the sight of Mari and ushered her in, slamming the door shut behind them and bolting it.

"Rainbow! Thank goodness it was you who found her!" Twilight gushed, relief pouring from her like a wave, "When I found an ancient spell to create an alicorn, I knew of course that it was forbidden, but I did it anyway and. And. Oh thank goodness." She pulled Rainbow into a tight hug, squeezing her happily.

"Twilight. What in the name of Spitfire's mane are you talkin' about?" Rainbow butted in, "What's an alicorn?"

"Um, excuse me, Miss Twilight. I don't think we've been introduced." said Mari a little nervously, "My name is Mari Silverton, from London, and I haven't a clue what's going on."

Twilight bounced up to Mari and examined her, "It worked! It worked! I screwed up the lateral component, but it worked!"

"Could somebody please tell me why I'm in a room full of talking mythological creatures?" Mari exclaimed with an exasperated sigh.

"You mean somepony." Rainbow corrected her.

"Somepo-" Mari started, then stopped, looked at Rainbow and giggled, "Somepony."

"Twilight." said Rainbow meaningfully.

"Right! Right! Of course. While at my brother's wedding in Canterlot I had an opportunity to look around the castle a bit." Twilight began, "I found a dusty old tome that said the princesses were created by a unicorn pony. They were the last resort in the war against Discord."

"Wait, they were created? How is that even possible?"

"Well. They're what the book calls alicorns, which is both a pegasus pony and a unicorn pony. They're immensely powerful beings, which is why the Princesses were called goddesses and now rule us."

Mari shifted uncomfortably, trying to comprehend what this strange purple talking unicorn was telling her.

"Just smile and nod, she'll make sense soon" Rainbow whispered to her, "She usually does."

"Anyway, in this book there were instructions for creating an alicorn. They weren't sure where the consciousness came from, but you summon it from somewhere else," Twilight babbled, "And then you need to use energy from the earth itself, on top of my unicorn magic to create the body."

"Aha!" Mari interjected, "You took my mind from my body, and put it in some sort of super pony? That's badass."

"Oh! You're not a donkey." Dash tried to correct her.

"Uh. No. It's an expression. Anyway, I mean it's cool. Like, good."

"Oh! I understand cool. I am the definition of cool." Rainbow bragged, on firmer ground here, "You see this toned body? This is cool."

"I'm terribly sorry Ms. Mari," Twilight apologised, "I don't know a way to send you back. Do you mean to say that you're not a pony where you come from?"

"No I'm a human. And where I'm from, ponies don't talk, and unicorns don't exist. Neither do pegasi." Mari explained, "It's good I'm here. I had a pretty crummy life. Maybe this one will be better."

"Are you sure? I mean, you're surprisingly calm about this. Now, before I explain our culture to you, remember one thing. Rainbow Dash! Pay attention!" Twilight snapped, "This is important."

"Yeah yeah. Magic, books, reading, nerd stuff. I don't care, Twilight."

"No, listen. Mari's existance is illegal. We can't let the Princesses know about her. At least, not yet. Keep her secret, okay?"

"That might be easier said than done." Mari said, "We were getting funny looks all the way through your town. A few people even bowed to me."

"I thought you might say that." Twilight grinned. She always had a plan, "What we'll do is say that you're a Princess from far away, and you're here to help make a surprise gift for Princess Celestia."

"That's your ruler, right? Go on."

"And because it's a surprise, it's imperitive that she doesn't know you're here." Twilight concluded.

"Sounds like a good plan. Hey Twilight, will you fix up my wing for me?" Rainbow hurried on, changing topic, clearly bored.

"Did you break it _again? _I don't have time for this. Go visit Nurse Redheart." Twilight dismissed her, "Miss Mari, you're going to live with me now. I'll explain anything you need to know."

Sighing dejectedly, Rainbow Dash left and galloped towards the hospital. Why did Twilight have to bring her illegal wacky magic to her? It wasn't like she wasn't busy enough, what with training, weather patrol and naps. And then there's the issue with destroying the equipment for Equestria's most popular radio station DJ. She still didn't know how she was going to pay for that. Why was life so complicated?

The hospital was pretty quiet, so Rainbow sauntered in and said hi to the nurse, who took one look at her wing and rolled her eyes, "Again?"

"It was an accident, honest. I was just-"

"Yeah yeah." The nurse had heard it all before and reached ito a nearby drawer, producing a small bottle of healing potion and a strip of bandage. She wasn't going to tape Dash's wing again, was she?

"Just until sundown. They're magic-infused bandages." She explained, seeing the apprehension in the cyan pony's face.

Rainbow just nodded and once the bandages were on, called a quick thanks and decided to head off to Applejack's place. Maybe she'd be up for a race or two, or at least she could have a nap in the barn or something.


	3. Chapter 3

Meanwhile, Twilight was writing down a concise collection of how Pony society works and everything Mari needed to know if she was to settle in here. It was no matter though. Mari Silverton loved to learn new things and this was an entirely new world for her to learn about. Twilight had just gotten onto the topic of cutie marks, when Mari interrupted her.

"Oh yeah. Speaking of which. How come I don't have one of those picture thingies. A cutie mark. You said that young gi-" She stopped, "Fillies get them when they're young. About eight or nine in human terms. But I'm eighteen."

"Well maybe you haven't discovered what you special talent is in a pony body yet." Twilight suggested, and then changed the subject, "You know, you're really quite spectacular. To be in the presence of one of the most powerful beings in Equestria... it's just breathtaking."

The alicorn shifted uneasily, "So when do I get to learn magic?"

"Oh! Right. Let me teach you something basic. How about telekinesis? Every unicorn can do that"

"TK?! Awesome! How do I do it?"

"You need to focus on the object you want to levitate," Twilight began, really enjoying teaching Mari. Maybe she should become a magic teacher, but that would mean leaving her friends behind. Maybe Cheerilee needs a unicorn to teach the young fillies? "And then because telekinesis is pretty simple, you just need to will the object to float. Try to imagine a magic field wrapping it, and the magic is an extension of your body."

"Okay. Should I do it now?" Mari asked a little nervously. So it was all about willpower and focus? Interesting.

"Oh sure! Try to move Owlowiscious' feathers I'm using as a quill."

Mari got into a stance to brace herself, expecting this to be hard for some reason. She pointed her horn at the feather and was shocked to feel energy run through her like really gentle electricity. The Alicorn's horn glowed silver and she focused on the feather, willing it to lift up. The object offered no resistance and moved at the slightest thought, wrapped in the magical glow of her horn. That was pretty cool, actually, and easy too!

"Hey I did it!" the pseudo-goddess cheered, "That was easy!" She decided to test her skills and picked up a book at random while holding the feather and span t hem around her head.

"Wow! I'm honestly impressed!" Twilight said, with a touch of jealousy and admiration in her voice, "Most magic works similarly, but if you're creating something from scratch, the matter needs to come from somewhere."

Mari nodded. That made sense, she'd always enjoyed science in school and it was only logical.

"Fantastic, shall we learn until sundown? You can have tomorrow off." said Twilight excitedly, eager to see what Mari was capable of. She seemed an intelligent girl and was taking all of this in her stride.

And learn Mari did. By the end of the day, Mari had mastered at least fifteen different spells and wasn't showing any signs of fatigue. Twilight was impressed, and a little scared. She knew alicorns were powerful, but not this powerful. And yet, she marveled at her beauty, and fantasized about running her hoof though the gorgeous pony's mane. Twilight was in awe, and almost felt obligated to worship the alicorn, as had been done in the past with the Princesses. Though, Cadence wasn't this powerful, was she? Twilight idly wondered if she was a mare who liked mares. She remembered once confessing feelings to Applejack, but apparently Applejack's barn door doesn't swing that way. Boy, that was embarrassing.

Mari however, was thoroughly enjoying herself, but it was getting late. Blissfully unaware of Twiights growing crush on her, gave Twilight a hug, causing Twilight to go all gooey inside and said, "I think we should call it a night. It's dark outside. What do you ponies do for fun around here?"

"Oh! Um. Personally, I study, organize and read for fun," Twilight confessed, a little sheepishly, "I don't know what other ponies do."

"Oh... I see. Well, where am I sleeping? And where did that Rainbow Dash get to? I liked her."

"I could pull you up a spare bed, or we could share, if you like," Twilight suggested optimistically, allowing herself to hope. All she wanted was to be close to Mari.

"Sharing would be nice. I've never shared a bed before." Mari admitted, blushing slightly, "I uh... didn't have many friends."

"Speaking of which, I thought you'd be more upset over losing your old life." said Twilight, "Surely you must miss your friends and family?"

"I didn't have any friends or family." Mari whispered, and then returned to a normal volume, "Shall we go to bed?"

Twilight nodded and got ready for bed, showing Mari her bedroom and they curled up together in Twilight's double bed. Twilight was secretly pleased to be sharing this time with Mari, and though she didn't expect anything to come of them sharing a bed, it was nice to feel the warmth of a mare beside her.

Mari felt similarly, she'd never experienced this level of closeness with anyone in the human world. She was an orphan, after her parents died in a car accident when she was young, and she didn't have any friends. Secretly though, she wished Twilight liked girls, because Mari never had any interest in men, which only added to her loneliness. Sighing, she rolled over, reveling of the warmth of having a body close to her. They'd been so nice to her here, and Mari Silverton wished that whatever miracle had brought her head would allow her to stay. This place seemed so much more peaceful than the human world, she thought, as she drifted into a deep sleep.

The sun filtered through the window, and Mari became increasingly aware that Twilight wasn't lying next to her, and that there was somebody else in the house. It was a male voice that Twilight was chatting to, and giggling. An irrational wave of jealousy swept through her as she got up, levitating a nearby manebrush to tidy up her mane. It was very odd, having a mane, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Heading down the staircase to the kitchen, she saw that Twilight was preparing what looked like daisies on toast. Very peculiar, but if she was an equine now, she'd have to adapt to their diet too.

There was a sneeze from the corner of the room and a jet of green flame shot in front of Mari's vision, startling her, and as she turned, there was a baby purple dragon sitting on a stool, watching Twilight cook. A dragon? Here?! Mari's thoughts raced; was it hostile? Maybe dragons were vermin. And it just tried to toast her! Levitating a nearby broom as a weapon to defend herself, Mari got ready to attack the dragon.


	4. Chapter 4

"Ahh!" Screamed Spike as he tried to hide under his tail, "Don't hurt me!"

"Mari! What are you doing?!" Twilight exclaimed as she turned to see Mari wielding her broom.

"I... Uh." The alicorn stammered, putting the broom down, "I guess that dragon isn't hostile?"

"Who, me? Pssh naw. I'm just Twilight's number one assistant." Spike said, "Name's Spike. You're the experiment, right?"

"Spike!" Twilight scolded, "She deserves to be treated as a pony, not a thing."

"It's fine, Twilight." Mari said soothingly, "It's nice to meet you Spike."

"Hmph."

Twilight presented the floral meal on the table, "Breakfast?"

"I guess you ponykind eat this kind of thing? I guess I'll have to adjust." Mari shrugged, and honestly, she was famished. She hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, and that was back when she was still human. "You said I could have the day off, right?" she asked as she took a bite of the daisy toast. It was surprisingly delicious and it was quickly finished.

"Sure! Just remember, you're Princess Mari from a distant land."

"Got it!" Mari said and raced off, pausing before she left to ask directions to Rainbow Dash's house.

"So Spike, what do you think? Do you like her?" Twilight gushed happily.

"I don't see what's so special about her." Spike grumbled, "It's like she's cast a spell on you or something."

* * *

"Mari!" Rainbow called and flew down from the cloud she was dozing on as she spotted the alicorn walking towards her house, "Fantastic! I want to teach you to fly!"

"Oh wow really? That's great." Mari mused, "I wanted to thank you for finding me yesterday. I take it your wing's better?"

"No problem. Hey, flap your wings, come fly up here and hover." Rainbow replied, "And yeah, Nurse Redheart patched me up good again."

And so Mari did, and found it quite simple. Within a few hours, Rainbow and Mari were racing each other and playing games in the air, flying through rings of cloud and seeing how fast the other could go. You'd expect someone built like a princess to be graceful and slow, but Mari could match Rainbow's speed. Eventually they flopped down on a cloud, exhausted and laughing. Mari and Rainbow were lying side by side, and Rainbow reached down to hold Mari's hoof.

"You know, you're really quite amazing." Rainbow said, looking over into Mari's emerald-green eyes, "Maybe we could hang out some more?"

"Ms. Dash. I do believe you are coming onto me." Mari teased, causing Rainbow to blush

"Well, you know... I-"

"Shh." the alicorn said, putting a hoof to Rainbow's lips, "Be quiet, my Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash just nodded and cuddled closer to her as Mari stroked her rainbow-coloured mane. This was happening fast. Very fast.

"Hey, have I told you about the ultimate flying move? I'm the only pony to ever pull it off." Rainbow boasted once more, "It's called the sonic rainboom. It's where you fly so fast you break the sound barrier, and a sonic boom and a rainbow happen all at once!"

"That's so cool. Shall we try it together?"

"Totally" Dash enthused and took off at lightning speed, with Mari in hot pursuit. They climbed steadily into the air together and dove, pushing themselves to go fast than the other. The air began to sizzle around Mari and the air exploded behind her in a rainbow coloured boom, followed half a second later by Rainbow Dash doing the same. The two of them soared through the perfectly clear sky, laughing together and twirling around each other to create a double helix in the air, before landing heavily on the cloud just outside Rainbow's house.

* * *

Meanwhile, Twilight was thumbing through "The Discovery of Alicorns", increasingly disliking the book as she highlighted a phrase indicating that Alicorns inherently emitted a low level "want it need it" spell, causing people to fall in love with them and to worship them. But this wasn't what was happening here, was it? Twilight honestly liked Mari. She was a kind, gentle and intelligent soul. The next section held some grave news. Due to their unstable magical nature, they will degrade quickly, only surviving for six months without topups to their energy. The energy comes from belief.

"Oh my goodness. We can't let Princess Celestia find out about this." Twilight told Spike, "She'll destroy Mari, as being a threat to her existence."

"Why do you care? She's just another one of your experiments."

There were two huge booms, one after another out of the window, and the sky was rippling with rainbow colours. It looked like Rainbow was showing off her sonic rainboom, but at any rate, she was improving.

"Wow. She's getting better at that; she can't usually pull off two at once" Spike mused.

"Because I care for her. Now come on. She went to spend the day with Rainbow Dash. We have to find her and warn her about this before she draws any more attention to herself!" Twilight shouted as she prepared to cast a spell on herself to teleporting her to Rainbow Dash's house in an instant.

"Twilight, just leave her be. She's not a real pony, is she?"

"She's real enough to me." Twilight said, and vanished.

A little staggered by the change in location, Twilight shook herself and looked up at Rainbow's cloud house. There she was, her body pressed up to Mari, kissing her passionately. Jealousy and rage poured through her, bypassing any politeness of social etiquette.

"Mari! I need you down here now!" Twilight yelled.

Disentangling herself from Rainbow Dash, she glided down to land in front of Twilight, "There's no need to be so rude."

"I'm sorry Mari," Twilight apologised, rational thought taking over, "But anyway. I've just found out that Princess Celestia or Luna simply cannot find out about you. They may try to kill you!"

"We already knew that though." Mari pointed out, "Can I go back to what I was do-"

She was cut off by a thunderous voice, "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

A figure was descending from the sun, wings outstretched.

"Oh horseapples." Rainbow muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" boomed the voice of Princess Celestia, clearly magically enhanced as she glided down to land in front of the three ponies, "You have cast the most forbidden magic in Equestria."

"Run, Mari! Rainbow, get her out of here!" Twilight shouted. Rainbow saluted and Mari began to run before taking to the air. Princess Celestia's horn glowed, letting out a brilliant white light as a magical barrier surrounded everypony.

"This is a crime most heinous, Twilight Sparkle. The creature must be destroyed." Celestia proclaimed calmly.

"No. No, she's a real pony. She's not a thing. I- I love her!" Twilight protested weakly.

"You... You love me?" Mari gasped, taken aback.

"No Twilight Sparkle, you do not love her. She has cast a love spell on both you and Rainbow Dash. It cannot broken by unicorn magic alone."

"I didn't! I swear I didn't! Please don't hurt me, Princess. Let me live." Mari sobbed, falling to the floor as Rainbow stood in front of her defensively.

"Not only were you foolish enough to steal a book from my personal library, but you cast magic you knew was forbidden." Celestia said, towering over Twilight, "I am not an unkind ruler. This misadventure will be forgotten as soon as that thing is destroyed."

"No. No. Please. No." Twilight begged.

"You are a good student, Twilight Sparkle. I do not wish to have you punished."

"No." said Mari in a voice like thunder, her eyes glowing and her horn shining pure white. She magically floated into the air, shooting a bolt of magic through the princess's bubble and into the sky . In an instant, the sun was dragged down and the moon came up, and rolling black clouds formed in the air above her, "I won't let you take this life from me, or hurt my friends" she announced, her voice amplified tenfold, sounding as if many voices were speaking at once. A bolt of red lightning shot down towards Princess Celestia, but conveniently veered off course at the last minute with a quick glow of Celestia's horn.

"Twilight Sparkle! Rainbow Dash! Get away from her! She's dangerous!" Celestia called, but her words were lost to the howling wind that now whipped around them, "She's going through a magical epiphany!"

"Run, Twilight. I will not allow my life to be taken." Mari boomed.

Celestia's horn glowed as she focused briefly on Rainbow Dash, who disappeared in a small flash of light, "Why did you not allow me to teleport you, Twilight Sparkle? Are you truly going to fight against your Princess?" she projected

"I won't let anypony get hurt here."

Another lightning strike hit the bubble, causing it to fall apart. "If all you are going to use is weather magic, you'll never defeat me, young alicorn." Princess Celestia chided, creating a chain of magic which she attempted to use to ensnare Mari, however it dissipated as soon as it touched her.

"Your power is weakened, dear Princess. The sun is down." Mari laughed, drunk with power, "Now leave me b-"

Mari was cut off by a shot of purple magic hitting her flank, and she landed in a heap on the floor, her eyes no longer glowing as she winds calmed.

"Perhaps, but we cannot permit the existence of another alicorn. We pardoned Princess Mi Amore Cadenza because she was created by us to rule the crystal ponies and therefore was subservient to us." Luna said calmly, making Mari disappear in a flash of light.

"No!" Twilight shouted, and was teleported back to her library.

Rainbow Dash was there unharmed, along with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity.

"Girls... What are you doing here?" Twilight asked weakly, staring at them in confusion.

"Now I ain't never met this Mari pony, but what the Princesses done just ain't right." Applejack said.

"She was your friend, so she was my friend. And nobody hurts my friends." Fluttershy explained.

"The way Princess Celestia acted was so uncouth. I thought goddesses stopped smiting years ago." Rarity concluded

"I love her." Rainbow Dash announced.

Everypony looked at Pinkie Pie, "Let's break into the Canterlot Dungeons! Wheeeee!" she giggled.

"I guess I'm on your side too." said Spike reluctantly.


	6. Chapter 6

It was dark, and Mari didn't know where she was. One minute there were two princesses trying to destroy her and now she was... somewhere.

After a few minutes of confused blundering around in the dark, Mari had the vague idea that she was in some sort of room with metal bars, with a pile of hay in the corner and a water trough against a wall. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she began to make out shapes of things in the darkness.

_Hey, I can use magic, right?_ Mari thought to herself and tried to cast a light spell, but to no avail. Had she been returned to her human world? But no, why would she be in jail? She touched her face with what was definitely a hoof. _Still a pony_.

"Ah, pony is here then?" a gruff voice muttered, and Mari was suddenly aware that there was a... creature walking down the tunnel outside her jail cell. It was definitely a creature, not a human nor any sort of pony. It seemed to look humanoid, but was the wrong shape. It had huge muscled arms which hung to the floor, and long sharp claws extended from the end of each forelimb.

"If pony whines, pony will regret it." The thing warned, moving close to the bars now.

"W-What are you?" Mari gasped as she saw it's green slitted eyes.

"Stupid pony. Has pony never seen a diamond dog before?"

"A _diamond_ dog?" Mari asked, "How is that different from a normal dog?"

"Are all ponies so dumb?" The dog rolled it's lime-green eyes, "Diamond dogs dig tunnels looking for treasure. Did pony think these were for knitting?" He asked nastily, reaching through the bars and holding his claws to her face.

"So... You're my guard here?"

"Dogs guard any in the dungeons, and dig for gems. We live here" He told her and started to walk away.

"What's your name?" Mari called after him

"Rover."

* * *

Mari was gone, and Twilight was pacing in her library, her friends looking panicked as she babbled on with plan ideas, "Okay! So both the princesses have turned evil and have kidnapped the love of my life." she began, but Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

"Excuse me? The love of your life?" Rainbow Interjected, "Me and her were totally together."

"I-" Twilight began again, and faltered, shaking her head, "That doesn't matter now. We need to save her. Who knows what awful things they could be doing to her?"

At the moment, there was a rap on the door. Twilight Sparkle sighed, _Will I never get to finish my sentence?_ she thought to herself as she went to open it. The local DJ, Vinyl Scratch was standing there.

"Yo Twlight, is Rainbow Dash here?" She asked, fiddling with the wire of the headphones she wore around her neck, "She owes me big time."

"Aw, this is so unrainbow." Dash muttered under her breath before calling, "Yeah I'm here."

"Sweet" Vinyl said and pushed past Twilight, "Dash, you owe me at least a thousand bits for the gear you trashed."

"Look Scratch, both princesses have gone evil, my girlfriend has been kidnapped and is going to be killed, and my brain is hurting from all this thinking I'm having to do." She said in an exasperated tone, looking pleadingly at the DJ.

"Woah dude, that sucks. But I can't let you off man. I gotta get my radio station up and running."

An idea seemed to hit Rainbow Dash and she smiled wryly, "You reckon you could get us into the castle in Canterlot?"

"Yeah sure no problem, but you gotta pay up."

"Ugh! Are you saying DJ Pon3 is gonna let an innocent pony die?" Rainbow said, "That is so unrainbow."

"Rainbow Dash, stop tryin'a make that inta a catchphrase. It ain't gonna work." Applejack warned.

"Well..." Vinyl Scratch thought for a minute, "If I get you guys into the castle, you'll pay up, right?"

"Sure. Sure. I have some money put aside. We're pretty famous and doing work for the princess like saving Equestria pays fairly well." Dash said, "Let me dash over my place and back."

DJ Pon3 nodded, "I'm not a smart pony, so I'll have 'Tavi get you in somehow. She's the smart pony."

* * *

A door opened some way along the corridor and Mary glanced towards it eagerly, hoping it would be her friends rescuing her. It wasn't.

"You used to be something beautiful." Princess Celestia told me, "You have quite an impressive amount of power. Now look at you."

Mari was kneeling on the damp stone floor but stood up when she saw the princess approaching. It seemed strange, to see a princess of light in a place so full of dirt and squalor. The princess smiled benevolantly at the young alicorn.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked, trying to make herself sound braver than she really felt, "Kill me?"

"I will not kill you." Celestia vowed in a flat voice, "You are to be tested upon, and you must have your memories wiped"

"No! Don't let me forget Rainbow Dash! My Dashie... My Rainbow." Mari said weakly

"Shall I take her into the labs, your highness?" A yellow earth pony buck with a dirty golden mane asked, stepping out from behind the mighty alicorn ruler.

"If they are ready." Celestia said, looking back to Mari, "Prof. Golden Dawn will escort you to the laboratory. You've probably noticed you can't cast magic here, nor can you fly. Please attempt neither."

"This way, if you please." Golden Dawn smiled kindly, opening the cell and lead the way out of the dungeons, and slowly but surely the tunnels became more square, and whiter, and more polished. Doors lead off in every direction, and twice we passed the same statue of who Mari now recognised to be Princess Luna.

She shook her red mane and marvelled at the single white streak. In the few days she'd been in this strange equine world, she hadn't taken much chance to look at her own appearance. Though it was hardly the appropriate time, she reflected on a life only a week ago. Homeless, orphan, cold and hungry. She'd had to do some terribly degrading things in order to survive. But was this any better? She'd always known she was intelligent back in the human word, but her IQ level took a serious jump when she became a pony. She'd breezed through the studies Twilight had set her, and now she was incredibly atheletic.

While spacing out and trying to weigh up whether it was worth coming to this world and finding friendship and love, she was jerked back to reality when the professor informed her that they had arrived at the Memory Room. Something about the way the colt said it made Mari automatically capitalise the words in her head.

She stepped into the room, taking a deep breath as she accepted her fate. These last few days had been the best of her life. And now it was being snatched away, but at least, she reflected, she ended on a high note.

"I don't want to die." She told the professor in a shaky voice, as if it would affect anything.

"You won't die. Your memories will be erased you will be re-purposed" Professor Golden Dawn smiled reassuringly, "You won't feel a thing."

"But I won't be me any more, will I?"

"No." He conceded, "Well, that's a difficult question. We don't have enough data to decisively rule out the retention of personality traits or virtues"

"I'm scared." Mari whispered, almost pleading.

"You can't be scared. Alicorns are not capable of feeling fear." He walked over to a machine, though Mari didn't even take in her surroundings. White walls, machinery hooked up to gems, giant tubes full of what looked like purplish jelly. Beyond that, she didn't really care.

"Then what am I feeling?"

"You just think you're scared, but you're really not capable of feeling any emotion, such as love, fear or pain." Golden Dawn said, "Even the princesses can't feel compassion, though they pretend to for their subjects."

"That's a lie. I'm scared, and in the history books... The princesses-" the white alicorn protested.

"Did what they had to do to rule. Why do you think they'd send in Twilight Sparkle to do their dirty work rather than doing it themselves?" The professor was attaching a necklace with an dark grey amulet holding a fire ruby around her neck. The amulet was shaped with the head of a unicorn, and wings with red along where the main wing bone would be.

"I-"

At that moment, the amulet glowed red, and Mari lost herself.


End file.
